HOA RV Parking

[boilerman]

I live in TX and my HOA has cited me for temporarily parking in my driveway and stating that "the CCR's clearly state that they are not to be parked anywhere in the neighborhood".

The only mention of parking in our CCR used the phrase "parked for storage".

I requested a hearing with the board in a couple of weeks and was wondering Is there a common legal interpretation of what storage is? I have seen some CCR's give a time frame such as 9 days.

Does anyone have an example of a time frame where it might be considered storage vs parking?

[john_harris]

Covenants, zoning code, deed restrictions and homeowners agreements can be worded differently from one local or jurisdiction to the next and even different from one neighborhood to another.

I have seen restrictions that mean flying an American flag on the 4th of July can be deemed "illegal," so go figure. That said, the few I have seen did differentiate between parked for storage and and the overnight to loading.

The HOA where my mom lives list a time period "not more than 2 consecutive days and not more than (so many) days per year"

Since your does address parked for storage you may have a case, but I am not an attorney.

[judatt]

When we bought our motor home a couple of months ago I stopped by the hoa office and asked if we could park for a few hours just to load up some things. She said she'd check with the board. The next day I stopped by and she said they indicated absolutely not. Then she said I can't tell you this but if you park it on the street in front of your house and not in your driveway there is nothing they can do - it's a public street. I ended up not doing anything but good to know. David.

[novi2some]

Our Association restrictions states you can not park an RV, motor home, boat in the driveway. The city restrictions state 72 hours.

I asked the association at a meeting about this. I asked if the association would take an owner to court for having an RV in the driveway. The reply was no, there isn't any money in the association account to do this.

I then said why not change the restrictions to agree with the city. This way the city could be used to go after owners. They said that would be a big undertaking and do not want to take that on. I was shocked.

Also, the association restriction says you can not even park in the street. I questioned the city on this. The answer is that the street is a public road and any judge would throw out any attempt to enforce parking in the street.

So, I just try to meet the city restrictions and not the association restrictions.

[dmastroluca]

Here is what I have to deal with my Nazi like HOA. I haven't been dinged yet, but I am expecting a violation letter from the HOA if they see the coach in front of my house for more than a day or two.

[manholt]

My HOA is 72 hours in driveway, no restriction next to house! Huh?? City of Galveston has only one restriction of 12 hours (daylight, no night) on Seawall, never been enforced by city, because it's Hwy. 87 (State)! All other city streets is no "buggy" for more than 9 days (enacted in 1887) and never been changed !

My house is at the end off a cull-de-sac and I park there for loading with elect. for 5-10 days with slides out! Nothing from HOA or city in 12 years!

I lived for 14 years, further west on Island and kept my coach in driveway with full H/U, not a peep from anyone, HOA or city!

Carl

[akadeadeye]

Sometimes it's better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

Don

[boilerman]

Great input. Thanks to all who have commented so far.

[manholt]

For some reason I just noticed the 5th wheel part. Yea, a lot of HOA's associate (wrongly) trailers with trash. I have an Attorney that has a custom made $1,800,000 trailer and he is considered by many in the same way!

I'm retired (International Drilling Consultant) and when folks hear that, then I'm Oilfield Trash...works for me! Lot's of non RV folks have pre conceived ideas. All it takes is one old trashed out trailer or MH to spoil the well !

Be proud of what you have! HOA's have a bunch of folks, with lots off time on their hands and no life!

Carl

[dmastroluca]

HOA's have a bunch of folks, with lots off time on their hands and no life!

I agree. I have seen their "enforcement" people cruise up and down the street real slow. A couple of old, frumpy, blue haired ladies with clip boards. No offense to any blue haired ladies on the forum.

[manholt]

Never seen a blue haired anything in a MH yet!

Carl

[jlandon13399]

Our HOA allows street parking for 48 hours for loading/unloading. The streets are rather narrow and the concern is emergency vehicles getting through. If one RV is parked on the street no problem. But it is possible that 2 RV's may be parked in such a way that emergency vehicles may not be able to respond. Our streets are public. I called the police to inquire what they would do and they deferred to the HOA. I guess all these CCR's are for our own protection and to keep up the property values. It is a shame if the HOA does not have the resources to uphold the covenants.

[paintedtugboat]

I was president of our HOA a couple of times and became more than a little familiar with the CCRs. We never fined anyone without at least one hearing and that hearing was after two or three warning letters and then at the hearing usually gave a warning making sure the offending resident was aware of the restriction and placing a lien was almost unheard of because it costs the HOA $ in attorney fees. The whole process is a lot less vehement than people think. It was only if the warning letters were ignored that action of any kind was taken. Remember that the HOA Board is made up of residents just like yourself and the primary purpose of an HOA is to protect the values of your property not to be Nazis.

[manholt]

HOA's vary depending on what part of the country your in, what part of the State. Some are good for all, some for the few and some plain BAD!

Carl

[DBianchini]

I thought about writing a book about this, here is the readers digest version.

I lived in a hoa 14 years. I didn't know anyting about the people who ran it, or where they lived when I purchased. I learned quickly. I owned the corner lot and the president lived behind my back fence around the corner. The treasurers lived 3 doors down on my 7 home culdasac. 302 homes in our hoa. 19 had rv's behind the fence in the yards. Just 1 , me was taken to court 2x's with $50. Per day penalties looming, with the garuntee of payment as they stood in first position in front my mortgage. I obviously was the square peg in the round hole. All board members were retired, but they took advice from a management firm who billed on specialty issues. Letters, site visits, and fines all increased her billing fees.

After living there about 8 years I purchased a motorhome. I built a beautiful gate at the back of my "L" shaped driveway and parked it almost 80' from the street. 20' behind a 6' fence. The slope of the land caused the bottom of the fence to be 5' higher than the street. I tell you this detail to show how much work I went to to keep it "not visible". I got sued. The court agreed with me, after a site visit, the rv was not visible from the street. I got sued again for not getting "architectural approval for the gate". The court agreed that it "looks like a fence, just like the fence that had been there for 15 years" except i had built a metal frame behind it so it would open to my yard. No material difference in apperance. As a matter of fact it was the same fence panels. I countered sued for harrassment. I did not prevail. I got myself elected to the board. The board conviened in exective session each meeting, without me, just the retirees, and would not conduct the meeting according to Roberts rules of order. Difficult times.

At one point during all this, I contacted Good Sams. They were a fantastic resouce. After reading their material, I parked the motorhome on the street for about 6 weeks. City street. Governed by city, unless silent, then state vehicle code. This insense the HOA even more, made my freindly neighbors upset with me, so parked it out back again.

The punchline, I purchased 8 acres in the next town over, built a house far from nieghbors eyes. Finacially I came out way ahead. I guess in a way, I should go back and thank them, but the 2 instigators both died within a couple of years after my move.

Thats life in California. One day ill tell the story of 4 years getting the building permit. Again only in California.

[jleamont]

WOW, this was interesting to read. We have no HOA where we live but we are within a Borough. When we bought the first motorhome I was informed there was regulations about RV's and Boats on the property. When I went down to Borough Hall to dig deeper I was told you can have it there but it must be parked alongside of the house or behind the house and no portion can exceed 4' from the front wall.

Now this became a challenge, my property slopes along side to my neighbors property. I obtained a permit and had a retaining wall built and rerouted my back yard fence to allow for the back of the pad area to extend into the back yard. Now the coach resides along the side of the house. We only park it out front while its being loaded to go somewhere.

In 1999 while we were house shopping we got a bad taste for the HOA thing and discussed how we would never place ourselves in that situation. Life changes often and with it hobbies do as well. While we didn't have a motorhome then there was no prediction of what we might want to do in the future, so we carefully planned and made the purchase on the house/property layout that seemed flexible at the time. 17 years later it seems like a decent decision was made back in 1999.

[BennieH]

No HOA's for me. Where I live it is only subject to the village and state laws. The only rule I have to deal with is that everything must be parked on a paved surface. (same for boats, trailers, whatever). So I have a concrete pad (the rules allow gravel, concrete of blacktop, etc. anything but grass or dirt) in the back yard for the winter and leave the coach in the driveway all camping season.

To me an HOA is simply for a small group of people to control all the others.

[manholt]

Joe.

You need to roam around the Forum more. Your living a sheltered life! Your HOA is the Borough, whatever a borough is? Herman probably has a boro and I have a pair of ughs!

Carl

[hermanmullins]

He haw, He haw,

Herman

[jleamont]

[hermanmullins]

Boro=Donkey

Hew Hew=Braying of a donkey.

Herman

[jleamont]

Lol, never looked at it like that but it makes sense. I only pay taxes, not a monthly fee and taxes. On a good note my garden hose is green because that's the one I bought and I can plant what ever flowers I choose.

I can't grasp paying someone people to tell me what color my front door and my garden hose must be. I guess it works for some, not for us.

[Prodallas]

HOA's are prevalent in Texas.  It is VERY difficult to purchase a new home without buying into one; which I hate with a passion.  I just received a friendly letter from my HOA management company about parking my motorhome in our driveway...saying it isn't permitted, yet our Covenants and Restrictions clearly state they are permitted for a maximum of 48 hours no more than twice each month.  These micro governments are heavy handed and most often run by small people filled with a sense of power and large ego's to match.  

I've answered your question as to what our Covenants and Restrictions say with regard to parking RV's, boats, etc.

[hayesfamily]

There are so many things I can say about HOA environment that I don't even know where to start.

I did not have a chance to read each and every comment but the original answer to your question is relative. It all depends on who's interpreting. To some parking its 3 hours to others it could be 3 days it just depends.

I really do not know how much FMCA gets involved when it comes to legislative issues like this but I do know large organizations such as the ARRL with us amateur radio operators have lobbyists that tried to curb some of that craziness.

The one thing I will say is find a lawyer that may be willing to fight for clarification. It's definitely cheaper to get clarification than it is to overturn what has been written in the books. Turning over something could take an act of Congress ... it's probably cheaper to sell your house and move somewhere else.

I do not live in an HOA but I do have a neighborhood association which I've told to shove off on several occasions with various things. The latest has been my motorhome because they don't feel I should park it on the street if I'm getting ready to leave. I actually had one neighbor call local law enforcement which I ended up telling them to go shove it, in turn they told my neighbor to go shove it, which led to my neighbor deciding to get her boyfriend involved. This Rascal wanted to go fist to cuff until he found out that Roscoe P Coletrain lives in my house and he's meaner than the sheriff on the Dukes of Hazzard (so 12g worth). 

I shared that story to say nice is always better. I tried to make nice with everybody in the block because that typically keeps down issues problems and law enforcement concerns. It does not always work if you have a crazy neighbor but 90% of the time it will prevail. And for those situations where you have a crazy neighbor, sometimes it pays for you to be crazier but I do not recommend that and this message will self-destruct in 10 seconds. 

[BillAdams]

Love you guys!  Hang in there and don't put up with any ship from the huddled masses.  You know your rights and you absolutely need to stand up for them.  Both FMCA and Good Sam have folks that can help you (in some cases) when local regulations allow RV's but local ignoramus try to stop it.  Hang in there and don't punch out your neighbor no matter how stupid or uninformed he might be.